Lenovo, the Chinese PC manufacturer which acquired the IBM computer business in 2005, is about to return some of its production capabilities to the United States of America: the Beijing-based company announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in the USA, a move that should improve its economic performances on the local market – while creating jobs in the process.

Lenovo’s first North American manufacturing unit will open next year in Whitsett, North Carolina with an initial investment of 2 million dollars, and is expected to create about 115 jobs. The factory will make laptops, desktop PCs, tablets and everything is sold under the “ThinkSomething” (Station, Server, Pad) brand.

The NC facility will join Lenovo’s manufacturing plants already operational all over the world (Mexico, Brazil, China, Japan, Argentina and so on), and the company says it will help making new products like the ThinkPad Tablet 2 and the ThinkCentre M92p desktop PC.

Lenovo is now the second-largest PC manufacturer in the world behind the USA giant Hewlett-Packard, but it's growing faster and according to market analysts the company will soon overtake HP and become the market leader.

Lenovo’s current market presence is stronger in Asia and Europe than in the USA, and the new production facility should help the company grow faster in North America as well.